OTHER NE8T-BUILDING FISHES. 283 



grapes. Both male and female watch these nests for a 

 month or more with great vigilance, violently driving away 

 every other fish until the spawn is hajtched. The Gobies or 

 Sea-Gudgeons, have similar instincts. Many, however, are 

 known not to construct nests. Salmon and others exhibit 

 an approach to the nest-building habit, in making a place 

 for their eggs in the sand or gravel. 



We must now notice the Flying Gurnard, remarkably dis- 

 tinguished from the others of the family to which it is allied 

 by the great size of its pectoral fins, which are long enough, 

 and their webs sufficiently broad, to sustain the fish in the 

 air during its long flying leaps out of the water. These fins, 

 however, are very different in appearance from those of the 

 flying-fish {Exocetus, " fishes out of the water "), which be- 

 longs to another family. The flying gurnard is an inhabi- 

 tant of the warm seas ; one species is common in the Medi- 

 teranean, and is sometimes fifteen inches in length. Its 

 flight is said not to extend more than about forty yards, but 

 it sometimes rises high enough to fall on the decks of large 

 ships. At particular times, and especially on the approach 

 of rough weather in the night, numbers of them may be 

 seen by the phosporic light which they emit, making their 

 passages in apparent streams of fire. 



Flying-fishes have the power of raising themselves out 

 of the water, and continuing suspended in the air until their 

 fins become dry, by which means they escape some of their 

 marine enemies, such as the dolphin and many others. 



" So fishes rising from the main, 



Can soar with, moisten'd wings on high; 

 The moisture dried, they sink again, 

 And dip their wings again to fly." 



But they run the gauntlet of the long-winged sea birds, 

 which seize them in the air; and between themselves and 

 their swimming and flying enemies, they furnish one of 



